Starship is using self-driving robots to deliver packages on demand – TechCrunch

Soon, the days of package theft will be behind us. For people living in the U.K. town of Milton Keynes, that day is today. That’s thanks to autonomous robot startup Starship Technologies .

Starship’s on-demand package delivery requires you to first install the app to receive a delivery address to go in the place of your home address, or wherever else you usually get packages delivered. That Starship-provided delivery address is where the company’s local facility is located. Once your package arrives there, the app will notify you and enable you to request a Starship bot to deliver it to you, wherever you are. Through the app, you can also track where your package is at all times.

Starship delivers to homes within a two-mile radius but has plans to expand its service area to make farther deliveries. The company says the battery is not a limitation, but that it merely wants wait time to be as short as possible.

By the end of the year, Starship aims for the service to be available to residents in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pricing has yet to be determined in the U.S., but in the U.K., Starship offers the first month for free and then £7.99 per month for an unlimited number of package deliveries.

“The hassle of needing to re-arrange your life for a delivery will become a thing of the past. No more having to switch your working from home day, reschedule meetings, visit a locker, drive to a post office or contact a courier all because of a missed delivery. Starship gets packages to consumers when and where they want them. This is the only service of its kind available in the world today, and it works around your lifestyle.”

A few months ago, Starship raised $25 million from Matrix Partners and Morpheus Ventures. New investors include Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn and others. Starship has raised $42.2 million in total.

Starship has previously partnered with on-demand food delivery companies like DoorDash and Postmates to test out its robot delivery service. Last January, Starship partnered with the companies mentioned above for a pilot program in Redwood City, Calif. and Washington, D.C. To date, Starship robots have traveled more than 125,000 miles in 20 countries, across 100 cities.